Chapter 5 #2
Luke stared at her, incredulous. They’d agreed that one child would be a miracle. The thought of another was almost more than he could process.
Sydney waved her hand in front of his face. “Earth to Luke. Have I totally shocked you?”
“No, sweetheart, you’ve totally thrilled me.”
“So you’d be game for doing this again?”
“Anything you want. Anything at all.”
“Hmm,” she said, her expression mischievous, “that’s a pretty big mandate you’re giving me.”
“It’s a pretty big love I have for you.”
Moving slowly and carefully, Sydney snuggled up to him, and Luke wrapped his arms around her, profoundly relieved to have the delivery behind them and a lifetime to look forward to with Sydney and Lily and whoever might come next.
After leaving the Harrises’, Victoria spent a few hours at the clinic, helping David prepare Tiffany and Jenny to take their babies home.
Jenny was having some challenges with breastfeeding, so Victoria spent an hour trying to help.
She was so tired that her brain was actually buzzing from the lack of sleep.
“Go home,” David said at two. “Before you fall over and become a patient.”
“I’m going.” Victoria didn’t have the energy to argue with him. “Back to business as usual tomorrow.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Victoria drove home with the windows open, hoping the fresh air would keep her awake long enough to make it safely to her driveway.
She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been this tired.
Well, maybe the week she met Shannon when they’d stayed up every night for days because they’d been having too much fun to sleep.
Thinking about those first days together made her smile.
That had been the most exciting time, to have found someone who captivated her so completely.
That was all she’d ever wanted for her personal life, a man who loved her as much as she loved him and to live happily ever after with him. Was that too much to ask?
This time yesterday, she would’ve said she and Shannon had laid the foundation for that kind of relationship. Now she wasn’t sure of anything.
When she pulled into the driveway, she was surprised to see his motorcycle parked outside. He was supposed to be at work. What the hell? She got out of the car and went inside, where he was seated at the kitchen table, an ice pack on his hand.
“Hey,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
He looked up at her, his eyes bleak. “Got into a fight at work. They sent me home for three days.”
Stunned, she said, “A fight about what?”
“If it’s okay, I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Oh,” she said, stung by his dismissive tone. “Okay. I’m… ah… just going to get some sleep, then.”
He nodded and returned his attention to his injured hand.
Victoria went into the bathroom and numbly went through the motions of changing into a T-shirt and brushing her teeth. In the bedroom, she closed the blinds and got into bed, staring up at the ceiling while trying to make sense of what he’d told her.
He’d gotten into a fight. Her Shannon, a pacifist down to his bones, had actually gotten into a fight at work and was sent home for three days. What the heck could’ve precipitated that? And why wouldn’t he tell her what happened?
She, who had been thoroughly exhausted ten minutes ago, was now so wired she couldn’t sleep.
How was it possible that in just twenty-four hours, her entire world had been turned upside down?
Why hadn’t she left well enough alone and resisted the temptation to ask questions of Seamus?
Now she had information she didn’t know what to do with, and Shannon was getting into fights. Coincidence? Probably not.
Oh God. What if he’d fought with Seamus?
The possibility had her sitting up in bed, reeling from the potential implications of Shannon fighting with a man who was not only his boss but also his cousin.
Was that what’d happened? Victoria got out of bed and went to the kitchen to find the chair he’d recently occupied now empty.
Outside, the roar of his bike starting up had her running for the door, but she was too late. He was gone by the time she made it outside. Where was he going, and when would he be back?
Victoria went inside, but she was far too agitated to sleep. She needed answers, and she needed them now. Instead of going back to bed, she got dressed and shoved her feet into flip-flops, grabbing her purse and keys on the way out the door.
Mindful of her lack of sleep, Victoria made an effort to concentrate on her driving and not on the turmoil roiling inside her.
She took a right turn into a driveway that had become familiar to her in the last year after many visits and parked next to Seamus’s truck.
In the yard, Kyle and Jackson were playing with their dog, laughing and running around the way little boys ought to.
Victoria waved to them on her way to the house, where she knocked on the back door.
Carolina came to the door and didn’t seem surprised to see her. “Come in.”
Her stomach aching with nerves, Victoria followed her into the kitchen, stopping short at the sight of Seamus’s badly bruised and swollen face. For a long moment, she couldn’t bring herself to move. She could only stare.
“Come in, Vic,” Seamus said. “Looks worse than it is.”
“It’s all my fault,” she said, her voice rough with emotion. “I never should’ve come to you. If I hadn’t… He never would’ve… This…”
Seamus got up and came over to her. “It’s not your fault.”
“You two fought because you told me about Fiona. That’s why, right?”
“We fought because he didn’t like something I said to him.”
“But it started because I went to you with questions I should’ve asked him.” Blinded by tears, Victoria wiped her cheek with the back of her hand.
Carolina came to her, put her hands on Victoria’s shoulders and guided her to a seat at the table. “You didn’t throw the punch,” she said.
“I started the fight, though,” Victoria said.
“No, you didn’t,” Seamus said. “I pushed him too far.”
Carolina raised the ice bag to his face and held it in place. “That doesn’t give him the right to punch you.”
“I’ve made such a mess of things,” Victoria said. “I should’ve left well enough alone.”
“If you’d done that, your relationship with him never would’ve been more than what it is right now,” Seamus said. “I was under the impression you wanted it to be more.”
“I did. I do. But not if it’s going to cause this kind of trouble.”
“You were trying to understand him better by going to Seamus,” Carolina said. “You had no way to know the magnitude of what you were going to be told or how he’d react to hearing what Seamus told you. Your intentions were pure and came from a place of love. No one can fault you for that.”
Carolina’s softly spoken words broke something in Victoria, the core of strength that had been holding her together since learning of Shannon’s tragic past. She dropped her head into her hands as her body shook with sobs, her heart broken for Shannon’s loss as much as her worries about her own future with him.
A few minutes later, the unmistakable roar of Shannon’s motorcycle outside had Victoria hurrying to dry her face and wipe her eyes with the tissue Carolina handed her.
Seamus put the ice bag on the table. “Let me handle this.” He stalked to the door and went outside.